U.S. Returns to Top Ten Ranking in Economic Freedom

After ranking 12th overall in 2005, the United States has climbed to 9th place meaning that Americans are more economically free today than they were a year ago.

Countries are rated on a scale of one-to-five, with one being the best, on 10 broad measures of economic freedom: trade policy; fiscal burden of government; government intervention in the economy; monetary policy; capital flows and foreign investment; banking and finance; wages and prices; property rights; regulation and informal (or black) market activity. Those scores are averaged to create an overall score. The top finishers are classified as free economies, followed by mostly free, mostly unfree and repressed economies.